, 1887-09-04
FOREST


The series Of articles by Professor Sha-
Ter in Scribner's has ably presented the
topic of tree preservation-a topic the
American people must positively give
heed to. No nation under the sun was
in times of peace ever SO wasteful as our
own. The increasing ease of securing a
supply Of food has tended for some hun
dreds of years, If not thousands, to rem
der human beings less economical of
means and careful of methods. The older
races, like the Chinese, never waste; to
them everything has its use. But we
nave destroyed as much as we have pro-
duced. Forests that nature raised by the
labor of a thousand years we have burned
up in a day. Civilization has invented
the phrase clearing up, which means
wanton removal of all things that stand
in the way of our immediate needs.
Where vast stretches of oaks covered
millions of acres it is difficult to find a
single grove or a single tree; but how in
estimable such remains are when foundi
1t is not wholly from the u%tilitarian
standpoint that we look, but the aesthetic.
These are like their surroundings. If it
be undesirable to dwell in the forest, it is
still more undesirable to dwell without
WIG NNLhpailhOAlohAP VI NAOSos Dub 90 a
matter of economy and physical neces-
sity we are compelled to have sympathy
for and with the vegetable world. Our
destiny, in common with the whole ami
NAL kingdom, is identified with the plant
kingdom. In the struggle for existence,
from the outset, there has been a mutual
interdependence of all living things. If
we destroy the trees we injure our own
,rDnrraoa af1 rrnnrNAzfa T- fhA NrnpApN
economy of nature p~rotoplasm, or the
bais of life, can only be created by the
plant kingdom; from it we receive the
same at second hand. But our existence
is dependent on trees and plants in many
other ways, int always has been. The
earliest human races were l%ittoral, or
shore jewellers. They had no tools to
work their way through forests, nor
weapons to cope with the denizens of the
forest. But with increase of the art of
making tools human beings left the shore
and roamed the forests as hunters. To
the hunting races the destruction Of trees
was the destruction of their means of ex-
Silence. The North American Indian
saw only starvation in the white mans
u%nsparing ak.
Civilization has brought us into wen
closer relation to trees, and more init
mate dependence on vegetation. The
equilibrium of the air, adjusting the pro-
portions Of carbon gases for our healthy
existence, depends IN trees. Malaria is
not caused, but prevented, by a %judicious
proportion of forest land. Professor Sha-
Ter takes up the case with great energy
to show that the most serious result fol-
lowing the destruction of our forests will
be the consequent loss of soil, turning
vast areas into deserts. "Already a large
part of many fertile regions has been
sterilized in this fashion; and each year a
larger portion of our infinitely precious
heritage of soil slips into rivers and finds
its way to the sea, because we have de-
prived it of the protecting coating of
vegetation" We nave also to consider
the Immense vegetation deposit which is
yearly added to the soil where forests
abound. Our own culture takes from
the soil, on the contrary, more than it
gives. So the waste from rain is greater
in titled soils than in wooded lands. In
forests the soil is ever deepening; in open
lands ever decreasing. This evil we must
endure, but should be careful not to ag-
gravate. The amount of soil now swept
away annually is actually clogging the
large rivers, compelling them constantly
to change channels. The argument of
Professor Shaler is pressed to show that
no man mas such a right in soil that he
may be wasteful of it, or use it for the
disadvantage of his neighbors. Govern,
ment, he holds, should interfere to pre-
vent waste of forests.
The question of forest preservation has
beer more or less considered by several
Of the states, but, in fact, apart from the
encouragement of tree planting, little has
been done in a systematic manner tc
regulate the use or prevent the waste OF
trees. Our relation to the vegetable
kingdom grows even more intricate, and
our serious dependence more emphasized
constantly, since he demands of c~iviliZa,
ton for timber and fuel increase, and
must increase.
AT present the greatest loss in the way
of forest destruction is from fires caused
by locomotives, malice or carelessness
Some of the railroads nave already takeI
action to prevent the recurrence of the
evil from locomotive sparks. The plar
adopted is to clear away all timber
growth for 100 feet on each side of tn,
track. A furrow is then run along til,
outer edge of this space, and the whole
kept moved and clean. The loss from
timber fires is not less than an average O
81, 900, 900 per state annually. This /
wholly ~preventable.
The work of Professor Shaler is notabl,
in this respect, that it makes the subject
which has been rather held to be local, Il
BIO a continental matter. He has en-
larged the subject, and shown that i
vitality touches the very possibility o
human existence-Globe- Democrnt.